April 21, 2023 First Black State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836

ALEXANDER TWILIGHT (1795-1857)

Reputed to be the first African American in the United States to graduate from college, Alexander Twilight was born on a farm in Corinth, Vermont to a white or fair-skinned mother, Mary Twilight, and a mixed-race father, Ichabod Twilight, who had served as a private in the American Revolution.  The young Alexander was forced to work as an indentured servant on a farm neighboring his parents’ farm from the ages of eight to 21. Nonetheless, he managed to graduate from Middlebury College in 1823, after which he taught school in Peru, New York, where he studied for the Congregational ministry and, in 1826, married Mercy Ladd Merrill.  Called successively to pastor congregations in Vergennes and Brownington, Vermont, Twilight also became the headmaster of the Orleans County Grammar School.  To meet growing enrollment needs, he designed, raised funds for, and built the first granite public building in Vermont, Athenian Hall, which contained classrooms and a dormitory.

Elected to the Vermont General Assembly in 1836, Twilight became the first African American to serve in a state legislature in the United States. In 1847, after conflicts with the Orleans County school administrators, Twilight moved to Quebec, Canada for five years, but then returned to serve as headmaster in Brownington.  He died on June 19, 1857 and is buried in the Brownington churchyard.  His historic Athenian Hall, renamed the Old Stone House, now serves as the Orleans County Historical Society and Museum.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

March 2, 2023 Math & Science

Image
Influential Black Scientists From left to right: Gladys West, Charles Henry Turner, Alice Ball, Percy L. Julian, Sophia B. Jones, Elijah McCoy, Charles Lightfoot Roman. (U.S. Navy, Public domain, DePauw University Archives and Special Collections, Public domain, New York Public Library, Ben Shannon/CBC.) Innovators across disciplines who have made significant, enduring contributions to the world. From the first treatment for leprosy to the foundation of the global positioning system, Black scientists have long been involved in major scientific developments, despite being pushed to the margins, refused jobs, and denied credit for their discoveries.  Charles Henry Turner | Discovered animals can have complex thoughts Among Turner's many discoveries, he was the first to prove that insects have the capacity to hear, and that they can learn by trial and error.  He was one of the first African Americans to earn a PhD from the University of Chicago, and in 1892, was the first Black s...
Read more

June 7, 2023 Sharon Mosely Braun - 1st Black woman in the U.S. Senate

Image
Carol Moseley Braun, the first black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 1947. She attended the Chicago Public Schools and received a degree from the University of Illinois in 1969.  She earned her degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1972. Moseley Braun served as assistant prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago from 1972 to 1978. In the latter year she was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives and served in that body for ten years. During her tenure Moseley Braun made educational reform a priority. She also became the first African American assistant majority leader in the history of the Illinois legislature.  Moseley Braun returned to Chicago in 1988 to serve as Cook County Recorder of Deeds. Capitalizing on the public furor over the Clarence Thomas–Anita Hill controversy and in particular the way in which Hill was treated by U.S. Senators, Carol Moseley Braun upset incumbent Senator Alan ...
Read more

March 6, 2023 Auto Designers

Image
Mckinley Thompson Jr.  (November 8, 1922 - March 8, 2006)  McKinley Thompson was the first African American automotive designer, and he was the first African American Designer to work at the Ford Motor Company. C.R. Patterson & Sons - the First Black Owned Car Company. By the late 19th century, the United States had been fully ushered into a period of dramatic industrial and economic growth commonly known as the Gilded Age. Some of the industry’s pioneers and gamechangers Every February, the United States celebrates African Americans’ contributions to society. Black History Month can be traced back to a week in 1926 when Black historians held the first organized commemoration. In the decades that followed, the Civil Rights Movement prompted huge strides in legal and cultural progress, and in 1976, President Gerald Ford made Black History Month official. At around the same time, Black professionals, including car designers, finally began to get some of the opportunities and...
Read more